The Wedding Banquet asks what happens when a rich Korean man needs a green card to stay in America but can’t marry his boyfriend for fear of being ostracized by his family. He could accept the loss of his family. Or he could ask his lesbian friend to marry him in exchange for paying for her girlfriend’s IVF. Does that sound more convoluted that it needs to be? That’s because it is.
Andrew Ahn’s 2025 film The Wedding Banquet is a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 film, a groundbreaking queer film that inspired many queer filmmakers, including Ahn. But the premise of the film in 1993 made complete sense—at the time, gay couples in the US were still over a decade away from getting marriage equality. Lavender marriages—where queer people of the opposite sex would marry for convenience and security—were a necessity. In 2025, when gay marriage is legal in many parts of the world, the stakes just don’t seem high enough. Hence, the convoluted plots. Which only get more complicated as the film wears on.
The first act of The Wedding Banquet is strong. It establishes the loving relationship between scientist Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her partner, Lee (Lily Gladstone), who is undergoing a second round of IVF, as well as Angela’s overly enthusiastic ally of a mother, May (Joan Chen). We also meet birder Chris (Bowen Yang), a typical lost millennial, and his loving boyfriend of five years, Min (Han Gi-Chan), an artist who’s been studying longer than his grandparents would like. Chris and Min live in Lee and Angela’s garage and they all spend a bit too much time partying, considering Lee and Angela’s plans to have a child.
In the midst of all this, Min is thrown a curveball—his grandparents want him to take over the family business, something Min does not want to do because that’ll get in the way of his art. But by refusing this request, Min will be forced back to Korea, and away from Chris. Hence, the green card plot.
The original The Wedding Banquet didn’t have two queer couples, and I was excited by the inclusion of the lesbian couple, and the friendship between the four main characters. However, two of the characters are done a great disservice and it impedes the film’s ability to connect with the audience. Lily Gladstone is an incredible actor, and their Lee is the emotional heart of this film, as well as being the most down-to-earth of the characters. But Gladstone’s screentime is woefully short and every time the story moves away from Lee, it feels like film has lost its way.
The other underserved character is Bowen Yang’s Chris, who could easily have been a clueless millennial, but comes across more as a character who’s only doing, or not doing, things to serve the plot. In a word, Chris is pointless. None of his actions or motivations flow or make any sense for a human being. Worse, two major reveals about Chris’ backstory are shared with the audience via throwaway lines of dialogue. Chris feels like such an afterthought that all the conflict generated by and around him ends up being meaningless.
Kelly Marie Tran’s Angela is a complicated woman, and she’s the most impactful in the cast. Tran also gets the most screen time, despite not getting top billing, which allows Angela to be a fully-fledged character with hopes and dreams, moments of selfishness, conflict with her mother, and time to stew in her decisions, both good and bad.
For me, Han Gi-Chan was the standout in The Wedding Banquet. He looked like he was having a ball in this film and brought so much levity and charm to proceedings. Gi-Chan absolutely owned the camera despite the big names he was surrounded by, and made the audience burst with laughter and cry along with him. His effortless chemistry with the entire cast tied the film together.
All that wonderful acting; if only the story had made a bit more sense! But it isn’t just the overcomplicated storyline of The Wedding Banquet that makes it a frustrating watch. The pacing isn’t nearly as good as it should be. Despite the solid opening, the film falls away following the wedding and never gains its footing. The ending—which I won’t spoil here—is too neat considering the characters’ actions towards each other.
While The Wedding Banquet is a gorgeous film to watch—the wedding scenes, in particular, were delightfully colourful—the story doesn’t do justice to its characters or its cast. It’s also hinged on a premise that no longer works for 2025. At least the acting is top-notch.
The Wedding Banquet is now playing in theaters.